Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow! How to Make Sure Your Car Insurance is Pumped Up For This Winter! By Mike McDonough At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Time is ticking, and Old Man Winter is slowly but surely sneaking up on you. It's time to make sure you've got the rock salt for your front steps, the winter tires for your car and the door snake to make sure you're not heating the whole outdoors. You're going to make sure your house is ready for winter before the first snow falls. The question is, is your car insurance?

Most people don't give their car insurance a whole lot of thought when they're thinking about winter, even though they probably should. Studies show that the number of car insurance claims filed between November and March (i.e. when the snow's going to be falling!) climbs dramatically. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect the nasty weather with the increase in traffic wipeouts. If you knew you were going to slam face first into a brick wall you'd want to make sure you were well protected first. Why would you do any less for your car?

The first thing you need to know about making sure your car insurance is pumped up for winter driving is that you may need to raise your liability limits. Every state has their own rules when it comes to liability insurance, but most of them have a minimum amount of coverage you have to have before they consider you safe to be out on the roads. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where "just enough" may equal "not enough".

Take a second to think about what will happen if you take a slide on the icy, wintry roads and slam into a car with a driver and four passengers. You have three passengers in your own car. That's a total of eight people whose medical care you're going to be responsible for. ICU care can total $5,000 or more per day. That's $40,000 for a single day of care for each of them, and that number doesn't even consider emergency care, follow-up care and any long term rehabilitation that might be required.

Most experts recommend that you set your liability limits to $100,000 per person or $300,000 per accident, and it's easy to see why.

Next, let's talk about comprehensive and collision car insurance. If you're sharing joint custody of your car with the bank or another lender you've already been given the third degree on what kind of insurance you have and the importance of making sure you've got full coverage. If you aren't carrying full coverage, you need to be. Liability is good, but it's not going to cover the damages to your car after an accident (or a close encounter of the telephone pole kind). And you're going to be completely out of luck if an icicle comes crashing down from the top of your second story awning and decimates your windshield.

For this, you're going to need comprehensive and collision.

The last thing you want is to be without wheels for weeks or even months while you save for repairs that weren't covered by your car insurance, so contact your agent and make sure your coverage is winter ready.

Then let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

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